A Canyon business will vie for the title of Best Coffeehouse in America during a Chicago trade show in June.

Palace Coffee Co. is among seven coffeehouses named as finalists for the competition sponsored by convention host Coffee Fest.

“It just kind of reaffirms the fact that our staff does a great job of carrying that vision to not only make this a great space but to make everybody feel special while they’re here,” Palace owner Patrick Burns said.

Coffee Fest is in its first year of sponsoring the quest to name the three best U.S. coffeehouses across the nation during regional shows in Seattle, New York City and Chicago, spokesman David Heilbrunn said. There is no “playoff.”

Palace Coffee applied to compete, then judging and fan support swept the company past other applicants, Heilbrunn said.

Coffee Fest sends “secret shoppers” to grade nominees in a wide array of categories, “from ‘are there smudges on the front door?’ to ‘are all the lights in working order?’ — and certainly on customer service, hospitality, drink quality, everything,” he said.

Information about applicants also is posted online to elicit fan votes, Heilbrunn said.

Coffee Fest builds a cafe on site at the trade show that becomes the proving ground for the competitors, Heilbrunn said.

Each business will have an hour during which it will take over the cafe, he said.

“We have customer judges who apply to be judges and then we have technical judges,” Heilbrunn said. “So they’re making drinks from a menu ... and we test their limits by putting about 30 people through there in an hour.”

The first round will run June 7 and 8. Then the field will be whittled to three businesses to compete for prizes on June 9, he said.

“You train for it every day,” he said. “It’s bar flow. It’s barista communication during a busy shift. It’s quality of the drinks. It’s all the things that we focus on every single day with our staff.”

Palace Coffee will host an event to raise money to supplement travel expenses for the team, Burns said. The coffee house will serve pancakes and chemex coffee for donations between 9 a.m. and noon, May 25.

Coffee Fest began as a gathering of coffee professionals in Seattle in 1992. It grew to a retail trade show in 1998, according to its website.